What's that on your forehead?

I gotta be honest with you:  I'm not sure I get Ash Wednesday.  Oh, don't get me wrong.  I've been to some powerful Ash Wednesday services, even administered some.  I understand the purpose.  The ashes remind of us of our mortality.  They are a sign of our sinfulness and brokenness and need for forgiveness.  The day ushers in a season of penance, when we focus on denying self and looking inward as we consider Jesus' sacrifice and how He is calling us to sacrifice.  It's a beautiful thing.  It's just that, well, there's more -- at least there ought to be.

This morning I heard the guys on Atlanta Sports Radio even talking about Ash Wednesday.  It's cool the Church is getting a little secular publicity.  The host who practiced this ritual talked about a season to remember what is really important and what he was giving up for Lent.  I've given things up for Lent before.  It's a good thing to practice denial.  That denial usually leads to gluttony on Easter.  I'm not sure it meant what it was supposed to.

I think this is my biggest fear:  we have used the ritual to replace the reality.  It's 'cool' in church-world to walk around with a smudge on our forehead for a day as an example of our mortality and brokenness.  It's cool to give up something for 40 days.  It's cool to think about denying self until Easter.  Then we're done.  No more brokenness, no more denying, no more sacrifice.  It's routine.  It's ritual.  And I want more.

Following Christ is about constantly being aware of our brokenness and utter dependence on Him.  Christian witness is about our lifestyles setting us apart rather than a cross on our forehead, a cross around our neck or a cross on our T-shirt.  Discipleship is about embracing sacrifice and living a life of self-denial in pursuit of our truest self found at the cross.  And it doesn't last just 40 days.  And it's not a ritual.  It's a lifelong journey that becomes our reality.

And my rub with that is my fear of how our ritual is played out in the Church and to a non-believing world.  We invite Christians to come get the imposition of ashes and we return to our daily lives looking a little weird.  Now, weird is good.  Christians should be weird.  But we should be weird every day.  Our co-workers and teammates and neighbors don't need to see us looking a little odd one day in February as much as they need to see us acting a little odd every day by how we love, speak, respond and behave.  Our closest friends who don't know Jesus don't need to see us give up chocolate for 40 days as much as they need to see modern-day Peters who have given up everything to follow Christ for a lifetime.  The world doesn't need to see us broken for a day.  They need to see us broken and restored because of Him every day.  My concern is that it has become something akin to a Christian check-list instead of a step in faithfulness.  It can be both/and.  We can participate in Ash Wednesday AND follow the ritual of Lent AND live a lifestyle that exemplifies brokenness AND lifelong surrender, self-denial, and sacrifice. 

I just think this is a day when the non-Christians go, "Those Christians sure are different today."  My prayer is that they would say, "Those Christians are always different."  So, if we do the ritual, let's make sure we live the reality.  And if we didn't do the ritual, what's most important is that we live the reality.